Ministry committed to promote gender equality
The National Director of the Department of Gender of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs Catherine Bob-Millar, has stated that the ministry is poised to adopt more vigorous policies and programmes to promote gender equality and women empowerment in the country.
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She enumerated some of the institutional, administrative and legal reforms initiated to include the mainstreaming of gender issues into national development processes to improve the social, legal, civic, political, economic and socio-cultural conditions of women and men.
Others were gender responsive budgeting, enactment of the Domestic Violence Law, laws and policies criminalising harmful cultural practices including an ongoing process to institute an Affirmative Action Law.
Relevance of women empowerment
Addressing the International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration organised by the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) in Accra on the theme: “A world of empowered, developed and sustained women,” Mrs Bob-Millar emphasised the relevance of women empowerment as a key factor to a developed and sustained economy.
She said it was an undeniable fact that the world would be a better place for all if both women and men’s concerns formed an integral part of the national planning and resource allocation, as well as policy development processes.
She said empowering the country’s women, who constituted 51 per cent of the country’s population, economically, socially and politically would have a ripple effect of reducing poverty, improving health status among other benefits.
Mrs Bob-Millar said to ensure that a conducive environment was created for women to develop their full potential, measures were being put in place to enhance reproductive health and rights of women, as well as mentor young girls to aspire to higher positions.
A Lecturer at the Regent University College of Science and Technology, Mrs Nana Ama Asamoah, also reiterated the need to empower women in the country.
